Find GIS data

This page contains a collection of data sources for people who like data visualization and mapping. The list includes places where you can download shapefiles for use in GIS products, including ESRI’s ArcGIS suite.

I have not verified any of these datasets for accuracy – you should only trust your own verifications. That goes for spatial information sometimes included in the tables, like area, length, or geographic coordinates. Any GIS software will be able to recalculate these based on your preferred projection.

Finding Data and Data Services – A research guide from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) written by Maps and Data Services librarian Becky Lowery. She lists and annotates links that serve as official data sources on a variety of topics for data from around the world.

Geography and GIS – Another research guide by Becky Lowery at UIC about geography, mapping, and computer resources.

Websites for Digital GIS Data – A collection of links curated by the Stanford University Library. Has several links to Bay Area and California data, but has links to each State’s “data depot” and international data sources.

NHGIS – Portal for Census data and Census boundaries. Has a “shopping cart” interface where you pick all the data you want (and it tells you which Census tables are available at which scale) and you check out. The site prepares your data and emails you when you can download it. The University of Minnesota runs the National Historical Geographical Information System.

United States National Transportation Atlas – From the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Includes vector (GIS) data on transit, county and state boundaries, airports, military installations, parks, and railroads.

Various links – A list of links to other United States Government websites where you can download data.

Census shapefiles for the state of your choice (via ESRI) – Choose a state and then a dataset to retrieve shapefiles. Shapefiles do not include complete attribute tables – you can download the necessary data from the Census Bureau’s website and then join or relate the shapefile with the census data using the FIPS column as the common attribute field. You can also download the files straight from the Census Bureau.

National Transportation Atlas – The U.S. Department of Transportation provides on information as diverse as the location of alternative fuel filling stations, hazardous material routes, as well as expected information like highways and rail transit lines.

GeoData.gov – a government clearinghouse for data and maps. View interactive online maps.

Chicago pedestrian streets – This is a zoning attribute and requires that developers build with certain design and setback characteristics. It also prohibits car-oriented land uses and features like drive throughs with entrances on that street, banks, car repair shops, etc.

Puget Sound Regional Council – Shapefiles for Urban Growth Boundaries, Traffic Analysis Zones, and other data (including transportation, housing, population), from the local MPO for the Seattle region. Other MPOs should model their websites’ data sections after the PSRC.

United States Navy – 966 links for worldwide and American datasets. Maintained by the Digital Mapping, Charting and Geodesy Analysis Program (DMAP) in the Naval Research Laboratory.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Housing and Transportation Affordability – People move to the suburbs for cheap housing, but they end up paying more for transportation making the housing savings a wash. Created by Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT).

Census information, 2010 – Basic household information for the census blocks around a given latitude/longitude coordinate. Ideal for use with the TOD Database. Uses Summary File 1 info. Created by Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT).

Geocoding services

University of Southern California – Provides its free, geocoding via standard web form or API to build into custom applications. Data returned includes Census Tract and Block, as well as FIPS codes for states, counties, and places (like statistical areas).